֎Kurt Cardinal KOCH (elevated 2010)

IMAGE CREDIT

Claude Truong-Ngoc / Wikimedia Commons - cc-by-sa-3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons LINKS

Vatican bio of Cardinal Kurt KOCH:

https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/documentation/cardinali_biografie/cardinali_bio_koch_k.html

Kurt KOCH on FIU's Cardinals Database (by Salvador Miranda):

https://cardinals.fiu.edu/bios2010.htm#Koch

Cardinal Kurt KOCH on Gcatholic.org:

https://gcatholic.org/p/4021

Cardinal Kurt KOCH on Catholic-Hierarchy.org:

https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bkoch.html

Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity on Gcatholic.org:

https://gcatholic.org/dioceses/romancuria/d16.htm

Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity on Catholic-Hierarchy.org:

https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dxpcu.html

Basel Cathedral website discussing the canons:

https://www.bistum-basel.ch/news/drei-neue-domherren-eingesetzt

La Repubblica 1995 article on Bishop Vogel’s resignation and son:

https://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1995/06/03/il-vescovo-si-dimette-aspetto-un.html

Nostra Aetate:

https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651028_nostra-aetate_en.html

2012 Catholic News Service overview of Cardinal Koch's comments on conservative Catholics and Judaism (archived via Library of Congress Web Archives):

https://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20121205205921/http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1202023.htm

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TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to Popeular History, a library of Catholic knowledge and insights.

Check out the show notes for sources, further reading, and a transcript.

Today we're discussing another current Cardinal of the Catholic Church, one of the 120 or so people who will choose the next Pope when the time comes.

Kurt KOCH was born on March 15, 1950, Emmenbrücke a town just north of the middle of Switzerland, in the Canton of Lucerne.

Cardinal Koch is the second Swiss-born Cardinal we've met after Cardinal Tscherrig, the Nuncio’s Nuncio we met last summer. But at the time we had dozens of countries involved, because, well, nuncio's nuncio, and didn't get a chance to just talk Switzerland.

These days Switzerland is famous for their neutrality, staying out of pretty much every conflict they can avoid. Perhaps that’s in part due to the fact that it used to be a battleground, especially in the rolling conflicts between the Popes in Italy and the Holy Roman Emperors in Germany. When the Reformation came, Switzerland was again divided in loyalty between largely Catholic southern Europe and largely Protestant northern Europe. One of the fruits of conflict, for better or for worse, is military skill, which is how the Swiss Guard that still protects the Vatican today came about. Fortunately, like I mentioned, the Swiss came to embrace neutrality, including in religion, with laws allowing for freedom of conscience–first just among Christian denominations and then more broadly. Keep this context of conflict to resolution in the back of your mind as we go.

Kurt Koch studied Theology at the University of Lucerne in Switzerland, then went to Munich Germany to study more theology, getting a diploma in theology in 1975. He served as a research assistant at the University of Lucerne from ‘76 to ‘81, presumably while studying even More theology, and soon after he was ordained a priest for his home Diocese of Basel in 1982. This is actually the first time I've seen someone ordained apparently without any specific philosophy training, going pure theology isn't as normal as one might expect.

After a period of chaplaincy, his theology studies continued, and in 1987 he wound up with a doctorate in, you guessed it, theology. I expected he’d stop there, or perhaps get another doctorate, but apparently in Kurt's neck of the woods there's another step you can go beyond a simple doctorate, the Habilitation, which basically works out to full professorship. The most surprising thing about this to me is that this is the first time I'm realizing it, it's extremely possible- I would say likely- that he actually isn't our first Cardinal to achieve this level, I just didn't flag it before and my sources described it differently this time. Part of why I love doing this is it lets me learn something every day.

Anyways, after obtaining his habilitation, Father Koch became Professor of dogmatics, liturgy and ecumenical theology at the Theological Faculty of the University of Lucerne from 1989, a post he held until 1996. He was also simultaneously rector for a short time, though that was interrupted by a call. Normally this would be a tongue-in-cheek note about a white phone, but in this case the call was coming from the Cathedral Chapter of the Diocese of Basel, because it was actually their job to elect the next Bishop of Basel and they wanted to choose Father Koch.

Of course, much like my normal white phone joke, this isn't necessarily *exactly* how it went down, since for all I know maybe Father Koch *was* one of the Canons of Basel Cathedral and no phone was needed for the news. But either way, my point is that unlike the typical process for most dioceses, where the relevant nuncio and the relevant Dicastery work with the Pope to figure out new bishops, Basel uses the old Cathedral Chapter model, where there’s a local election among the members of the Chapter.

The Cathedral Chapter might have been a little sheepish, because they had actually just elected a new Bishop of Basel, who had found himself under a lot of psychological pressure–being a bishop isn't easy–and had wound up going to an old friend for comfort. A female friend, who wound up pregnant. He resigned, got laicized, and married her. Hopefully he's a better traditional father than he was a spiritual one.

Bishop Koch received his episcopal consecration directly and personally from Pope John Paul II in the Vatican, possibly because everyone was wanting to do things right after the last kerfuffle, though I don’t have any source claiming that, just a guess.

The University Of Lucerne made him an honorary professor on his way out the door, a nice gesture, presumably a sort of “you're welcome to come back by any time” kind of arrangement.

Bishop Koch got involved in the Swiss Bishop's conference, serving as their Vice-President for nine years, and as their President for three. Together that represents pretty much his entire time as a bishop in Switzerland, because in 2010 Bishop Koch was called up to the Vatican to head the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, of which he had been a member since 2002. To fit the dignity of his new office, he was promoted to Archbishop and then Cardinal.

Speaking of archbishops, today I learned Switzerland has no archbishops, all six dioceses are immediately subject to the Holy See, meaning if there's something that would normally involve an Archbishop, it goes to the Vatican. But enough about Switzerland, we're in Rome now.

Pope Benedict had Cardinal Koch jump in headfirst, heading a delegation to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew–the leader of the Orthodox, the largest Christian Church outside of Catholicism, and co-presiding over a meeting of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church with his Orthodox counterpart. In December, Pope Benedict also added Koch to the Congregation for the Oriental Churches and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

What a difference a year makes, Koch had started the year as a simple bishop, now he was pretty much everywhere.

Cardinal Koch's big Christian unity gig also extends outside Christianity, as the head of that dicastery is also automatically the President of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews. Sometimes the two overlap, like when he's talking with traditionalists who are to varying degrees reluctant to embrace Jews as their brothers. In those cases he points to Nostra Aetate, essentially the Catholic Church's foundational document on religious freedom, which explicitly decries antisemitism, and which Cardinal Koch has called “important for every Catholic”.

In addition to dozens of articles and papers, Cardinal Koch has written at least fifteen books.

Originally elevated as a Cardinal-Deacon, Cardinal Koch exercised his right to become a Cardinal-Priest after ten years of service as a Cardinal.

In addition to the roles we've already discussed, Cardinal Koch is currently a member of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith; the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints; the Dicastery for Bishops; and the Dicastery for Culture and Education.

A veteran of the 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis, Kurt Cardinal KOCH is eligible to participate in future conclaves until he turns 80 in 2030.

Today's episode is part of Cardinal Numbers. Stay tuned to see if today's Cardinal gets selected for a deeper dive in the next round! Thank you for listening; God bless you all!